Jillian Galloway, a Bowdoin College graduate and resident of Hope, is embarking on a work-study program this coming academic year, under the auspices of a Fulbright grant.

Her goal is to research the effects of climate change on migratory birds off the coast of Iceland, particularly Atlantic puffins.

A biology major, she has focused on ecology, and has studied climate change in coastal communities.

“I believe that this project is important because an improved understanding of migratory seabirds’ response to changing ocean temperature will play a central role in ecologists’ broad-scale understanding of how climate change is impacting both terrestrial and marine ecosystem,” said Galloway.

She joins 12 other Bowdoin students receiving a Fulbright grant under the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. In 1946, U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright founded the program, which is sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the United States and other countries.

Each year, applicants are selected in a competitive process to teach English or to pursue studies or research in one of more than 160 nations around the world.

A Watershed School graduate, Jillian is the daughter of Clare Charbonneau Galloway and William Galloway, of Hope, and granddaughter of Jillian and Paul Charbonneau, of Rockport.  She spent Autumn 2019 on SEA Semester through Woodshole, Mass.  Her program there was “Sustainability in Polynesian Island Cultures and Eco Systems (in America Samoa, Tonga and Fiji)”.

She has also worked with Puffin Project/Audubon on Matinicus Rock.